It's not October without the Save Mart Shootout

Published online on Saturday, Oct. 24, 2009

It's amazing how much the little things matter.

The little things always matter, of course, but not the way they do now, not when people take pay cuts and families put off vacations.

They don't matter as much as they do when troops are still overseas, and San Joaquin Valley farmers scream for water, and the unemployment rate looks like a halftime basketball score.

It's amazing how much momentum matters in life, not just the fourth quarter of football games. At your office, people probably spend more time grumbling than go-getting. A few start using all their sick days. Others have to pick up the oars, and then they start to use sick days. What's the point anyway, right? Momentum builds quickly, the bad and the good.

When compared to everything that's going on, the Save Mart Shootout wasn't a huge deal. It's only a golf tournament, you know, and not even a PGA event. It was a pro-am, and not even a famous pro-am. Bill Murray didn't spin any old ladies into sand traps there.

But it mattered to Fresno and to the Valley. The crowds built every year, 8,000, and then 10,000, and then 12,000. Fans got to see so much. One year Annika Sorenstam hit a golf ball so smoothly, it barely made a sound. Another year, Peter Jacobsen imitated Craig Stadler's swing by tucking in his shirt and filling it with golf balls.

Arnold Palmer walked alongside Nancy Lopez there at the Riverbend Golf Club. It was there that Lee Trevino marched the fairways on Duracell, faster than a mom with a grocery cart and screaming kid. George Lopez did some stand-up and free landscaping on those fairways.

John Daly got drunk there and played barefoot. It was like seeing a Babe Ruth home run, not in a greatness sense, but just one of those things you always hear about, but never get to see in person.

It was nothing to run into the great quarterback Daryle Lamonica there, not playing, just hanging out, telling stories. Dave Stewart gave his famous glare there, truly frustrated that he wasn't playing better golf. He talked about how the world went silent when he stood on the mound.

The Save Mart Shootout was so many things, so many moments and laughs and autographs, and you might have noticed that it is the end of October. It's not happening this year. Save Mart announced this spring that it would not be sponsoring the event this year, but not much had been said beyond that.

"We looked hard to see what we could do to try to continue the event," says Mike Galeski, the executive vice president of Peter Jacobsen Sports, the event's promoter. "The community has supported it pretty well.

"It's been a great run with the Save Mart Shootout."

But for now, it is gone, another hole chipped in what had been a decent sports scene. This city has lost its pro hockey team. The Grizzlies' owners beg the city for mercy on their lease. The Valley was teased with a fancy golf course and a possible PGA Tour event, which turned out to be lies.

Jacobsen Sports' people figure the Save Mart Shootout brought $4 million or $5 million worth of impact to the community, but it was more than dollars. It was something to be proud of, an event to look forward to no matter how Fresno State football was playing.

It was two days to point at Fred Couples and say, "Look, son, that's how a golfer should act." It was two days to watch Dean Wilson and admire his class. Even the gala on the Sunday night had big names, Dana Carvey and Tony Bennett and B.B. King.

There is still no guarantee that it -- or an event like it -- will return next year. Peter Jacobsen Sports is trying.

"We're hopeful," Galeski says. "We certainly haven't given up the ship."

But they face the same problems this year, sponsors unable to keep employees, let alone sponsor golf tournaments.

"We're gonna have to have confidence at the end of the next 90 days," Galeski says. "The longer it goes, it kind of pushes us back in the same position."

Galeski's 85-year-old aunt lives in Clovis and she used to go to the Save Mart Shootout every year.

They know what the event means here in the Valley.

They know we need something, even a silly little thing like watching celebs and pros playing golf to get the momentum going the other way.